Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mr Takashiba

When we were kids, during the summers, we used to load the jeep and trailer on a Young Brothers’ barge and head to different neighbor islands to camp. After a while, we ended up repeatedly coming to Kona.

On one of those Kona trips, sixty years ago, we headed up mauka and our father got us all out and said we were going to build a house here.  It turns out we ended up building on a different lot, up Donkey Mill Road, the first left after the dip.  We planted macadamia nuts on a 20-acre KSBE lease.  Well, ‘we’ didn’t do the planting, it was all arranged through Mr Takashiba.

Yoshitaka Takashiba was “the son of immigrants from Fukui-ken, Japan, was born on May 23, 1913, in Captain Cook, Kona, Hawaii.”

His father, Koshu Takashiba, a rice farmer in Fukui-Ken, left Japan in about 1909, in search of work, and had intended to go to Canada; rather, they stopped and stayed in Kona.

Koshu Takashiba was Issei (first generation) – born in Japan and emigrated to the Islands from 1885 to 1924 (when Congress stopped all legal migration).   The term Issei came into common use and represented the idea of a new beginning and belonging.

The children of the Issei, like Yoshitaka Takashiba, were Nisei, the second generation in Hawaiʻi and the first generation of Japanese descent to be born and receive their entire education in America, learning Western values and holding US citizenship.

Yoshitaka was the eldest of five children.  In Kona, the family was engaged in coffee farming.  “As a youth, Yoshitaka helped on the family coffee farm and attended Konawaena School.  In 1927, at the age of 14, he quit school to assume more responsibilities on the farm.”

“In 1933, he married Chiyoko, and three years later, began growing and marketing tomatoes to supplement their [coffee] income.  In 1945, he started macadamia nut seedlings which he eventually planted in the fields three years later.”

Mr Takashiba was a man with only an eighth grade education but was a patient pioneer in the macadamia nut industry in Kona and a leader of several agricultural cooperatives.  I learned a lot from him – I suspect to his dismay, though, one of the things I learned was that when I grew up, I was not going to be a farmer.

But Mr Takashiba was a great farmer, friend, and contributor to the future of Kona that we live in now.  He did an oral history interview for the ‘Social History of Kona’ project – I’ll let him tell some more of his story …

“At the time that I was growing up it’s not like now, you can see all the opportunities and you can see what [is available]. Even at the local you can see the mechanics and carpenters, electrician, all that kind.”

“I don’t know how the teenagers now feel but we were not exposed in that kind of opportunities so we didn’t have any idea what our future will be and we weren’t thinking about our future, it’s just day by day.”

“So we weren’t thinking what I will be in the future.  In general, I kind of like growing things so I didn’t think too much about feeling that I want to get out of farming or that sort. … [and] my parents insisted that I should take care of the farm.”

“[T]he coffee was the main production so most of the local farmers were Japanese and like I’m nisei, I was brought up in such that my family came from Fukui-ken and they were farming and they were real conservative.”

“Every inch of the farm was put in production so I was trained in such that every inch of the soil is valuable and most of the farmers, the nisei farmers were taught in such that they were reluctant in cutting any coffee trees.”

“So even how narrow [the farm road] is, even the two coffee trees touched the jeep or whatever the vehicle is, they are forced to go through that line without cutting the coffee trees.”

“[M]ainly the object was to keep the families’ children in the farm. Not as of employing the children. So the families’ children did a lot of work. In fact they did better than the adults did.”

“[I]f you have a teenager then they will start working at the time that their parents start working and they would end up at the time that the parents end up. So in other words, if you work 12 hours then the teenager will work 12 hours, whereas a hired hand will only work eight hours.”

“[W]e were brought up in that locality that most of the farmers, in fact, all of the farmers were Japanese. After we left school our conversation was in Japanese mostly so actually when I went to school the English was not as fluent as of what we spoke Japanese.”

In 1945, Mr Takashiba started getting into macadamia nuts … by 1947 he stopped coffee farming – “Too much labor in picking.”

“[M]y friend coached me that in the future, macadamia nuts might be one of the important product in Kona. So with that two things, sort of encourage me to plant the macadamia nuts.”

“At that time the university, the university experiment station was doing some research on macadamia nuts and they were collecting various variety that were grown in Kona and elsewhere in the state of Hawaii.”

“I was told that the macadamia nuts would not germinate too fast so I had a patch of tomatoes growing and under the tomatoes I started the seedling of macadamia nuts. In other words, I planted the tomatoes and macadamia nut seed at the same time.”

“While the tomatoes were growing, the macadamia nuts were ready to germinate and then it germinated about four months after I planted the seed. So by the time the tomatoes were out of production the macadamia nut plant was just ready to sprout or some were couple inches grown up.”

“Some of [his friends] said, ‘Oh, you damn fool.’ … After I planted my macadamia nut and the university felt that macadamia nuts would be one of the industries for Kona they [university] were propagating a lot of grafted macadamia nuts.”

“And at the start they were selling for $1.50 per plant which was about three to four years old. Some of them bought and planted at that time but at that time that the university was selling the seedlings, I had already planted in my orchard so I didn’t go and buy them.”

“But at the time that they had this macadamia nut grafted and ready to be planted in the orchard, some of them were sold but some were start getting overgrown so they used to give the farmers free. And that’s when quite a number of the farmers planted the macadamia nut because they were getting the plant free.”

“But some of them planted macadamia nut free and as the trees started producing, they weren’t too strong market so they cut all the trees. So when I visit those farmers, they said, ‘Gee, Takashiba, if I had that macadamia nuts I think I would be in the same category with you but damn fool me, I cut the tree. ‘  I think there were a couple of farmers that had cut the trees.”

He got involved with the Kona Macadamia Nut Club that evolved into the Kona Macadamia Nut Cooperative, an organization he later led. (The duty of the cooperative “was to get the farmer’s macadamia nut together and sell to the buyers as a cooperative”.)

“From the very young stage I was real interested in cooperative, I know once I went to a gathering where at that time Japan was real active in cooperatives. … so, I was from the very kid days, I was interested in getting the farmers together and marketing together.”

“For that reason I was real active in this cooperative so I did a lot of sacrificing job. I had a truck, I went out to collect the nuts with my own expense and then market it together to whoever bought the nut from us. That’s how I was involved in that supervisor/manager at the same time.”

“The macadamia nut, we don’t have that world market price [Kona coffee prices were based on Brazilian and Columbian coffee prices] so the [macadamia nut] price was sort of controlled by the buyer. Hawaiian Host is one of the buyer and we have Menehune and Honokaa and Keaau. But the  biggest buyer is Hawaiian Host, Honokaa and Keaau.”

As for his vision of the future … “the Japanese style is that, what do you call, you leave everything for the children. They try work hard and they leave for the children. They wish that, or they try to train the children in such that in the future it will be [a certain way].”

“But I feel that you cannot control the children as much as what you think you’d like to control. And then even you want them to be in a good position, if you cannot support them to get into that position it’s your ability.”

“So my thinking is you should worry about that but I think the main thing is to have them well educated. Then the thing is, if you educate the children as of what you should and from there on I think it’s their ability or their responsibility to get whatever they want to.”

“If they want to be lazy and they have the education and if they don’t want to use the education to get some money then that’s their business not the parents. You cannot tell them you should do this, you should do that and if they don’t do, then how can we control it.”

“So I think beyond that is, we’d like to see them in successful position but I think you cannot push them to do this or to do that.  I think as long as we give them the education then from there on it’s their kuleana.” (Yoshitaka Takashiba)

A successful man, with an eighth-grade education, gets it … the future is framed by working hard and getting an education, and taking personal responsibility for your actions (and occasionally taking some risks).  Yoshitaka Takashiba passed away on August 22, 2011 at the age of 98.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pi

Pi – which is written as the Greek letter for p, or π – is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle. Regardless of the circle’s size, this ratio will always equal Pi.

Babylonians and Egyptians had rough numerical approximations to the value of Pi, and later mathematicians in ancient Greece, particularly Archimedes, improved on those approximations. By the start of the 20th century, about 500 digits of Pi were known.

The most accurate value for Pi, according to Guinness World Records, is more than 62 trillion digits (62,831,853,071,796 to be precise), by University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons (Switzerland) in Chur, Switzerland, on August 19, 2021. (Guiness World Records) (Others have since computed beyond this.)

In decimal form, the value of Pi is approximately 3.14 – thus the expression that today, March 14, is Pi Day.

But Pi is an irrational number, meaning that its decimal form neither ends (like 1/4 = 0.25) nor becomes repetitive (like 1/6 = 0.166666…). (To only 18 decimal places, Pi is 3.141592653589793238.)

Hence, it is useful to have shorthand for this ratio of circumference to diameter. According to Petr Beckmann’s A History of Pi, the Greek letter π was first used for this purpose by William Jones in 1706, probably as an abbreviation of periphery, and became standard mathematical notation roughly 30 years later.

Try a brief experiment: Using a compass, draw a circle. Take one piece of string and place it on top of the circle, exactly once around.  Now straighten out the string; its length is called the circumference of the circle. Measure the circumference with a ruler.

Next, measure the diameter of the circle, which is the length from any point on the circle straight through its center to another point on the opposite side.

If you divide the circumference of the circle (distance around the perimeter of the circle) by the diameter (distance across the circle through the center), you will get approximately 3.14 – no matter what size circle you drew (every circle has the same ratio of circumference to diameter).

In addition, Pi also connects the radius of a circle (half the diameter) with the area of that circle by the formula: the area is equal to Pi times the radius squared. Additionally, Pi shows up often unexpectedly in many mathematical situations.

(For example, the sum of the infinite series uses Pi (it’s a Basel problem concerning an infinite sum of inverse squares … (the series is the sum of 1/n2, as in 1/12 + 1/ 22 +1/32, etc)) that is represented as, 1 + 1/4 + 1/9 + 1/16 + 1/25 + … + 1/n2 + … is π2/6) (Scientific American) (Don’t you just love math?)

Why else is Pi important?  Pi is key to accurately pointing an antenna toward a satellite. It helps figure out everything from the size of a massive cylinder needed in refinery equipment to the size of paper rolls used in printers.

Pi is also useful in determining the necessary scale of a tank that serves heating and air conditioning systems in buildings of various sizes.

NASA uses Pi on a daily basis. It’s key to calculating orbits, the positions of planets and other celestial bodies, elements of rocket propulsion, spacecraft communication and even the correct deployment of parachutes when a vehicle splashes down on Earth or lands on Mars.

Using just nine digits of Pi, scientists say it can calculate the Earth’s circumference so accurately it only errs by about a quarter of an inch (0.6 centimeters) for every 25,000 miles (about 40,000 kilometers). (WBUR, NPR)

How’s this about Pi? … Possibly the world’s best-known scientist, and one of the greatest and most influential scientists of all time, Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Germany.  Oh, and famed physicist Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Richard Henderson Trent

“During [WW I], Richard Henderson Trent was the local representative of the Alien Property Custodian and his responsibility, of course, was to take over property owned by German interests here in the Islands.” (Theodore Frederick Trent, oral history)

“Ready to stir the cauldron which was now bubbling nicely was Dixie Doolittle, whose paid advertisements appeared from November, 1917, to February, 1918. Dixie made it his practice to attack Germanism wherever he found it.”

“One day he found it in the Elks Lodge, and the ensuing libel trial unveiled Dixie Doolittle as none other than Richard H. Trent, president of Trent Trust Company, of whom more will be said later.”

“Trent had attacked the Elks, because their club served liquor, and he considered liquor a German weapon. … The editorial response of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin drove home the point that ‘nothing but the most ceaseless vigilance will serve to protect Hawaii . . . from the ceaseless conspiracies of the enemy.’”

“Everyone now knew the ‘faithlessness of the German word.’  “J. F. Brown in a letter to the Bulletin added the thought that ‘Americans must regard every German as a potential spy unless loyalty proven beyond doubt.’” The court acquitted Trent of the charges, but the advertisements did not reappear.” (Wagner-Seavey)

Born September 11, 1867, in Somerville, Fayette County, Tennessee, Richard Henderson Trent was the son of William Clough and Mary Virgin (Bonner) Trent.

Trent only attended public school until he was 12-years of age, and was a self-educated and self-made man.  He arrived in the Islands in 1901, and almost immediately joined the staff of the Evening Bulletin, but left after several months to become bookkeeper for Henry Waterhouse & Co., and later treasurer of the Henry Waterhouse Trust Co., Ltd.  (Men of Hawaii)

Trent Trust Company, Ltd was  formed on June 20, 1907 (Hawaiian Star, Jul 1, 1907); Town and Country Homes was formed by Trent and others in November 1924, “the purpose of which is to acquire and develop lands and build houses and roads”. (SB, Nov 13, 1924)

“With the Incorporation came an even greater growth, both in the amount, of business and in the number of departments handled by the concern. … Trent Trust Company handles real estate, insurance, stocks and bonds, renting, building, loans and mortgages, and its trust department has well equipped safe deposit vaults.”

“Every department has men who are experts in their line, as efficiency is the keynote of the firm and to which it owes Its rapid growth. It has a very loyal body of clients and good will is one of its biggest assets.” (SB, Jun 30, 1917)

Charles Russell Frazier (the head of Town and Country Homes, Ltd., which was the real estate division of the Trent Trust Co.)  was primarily a marketing man, but was also developer and chief promoter).

In 1924, Harold Kainalu Long Castle sold land on the Windward side to Trent and Frazier and they developed what we call “Lanikai”.  As a marketing ploy to entice wealthy buyers looking for a vacation home at the development they also referenced is as the “Crescent of Content”.

In naming it Lanikai they believed it translated ‘heavenly sea;’ however, they used the English word order.  In Hawaiian the qualifier commonly follows the noun, hence Lani-kai means ‘sea heaven,’ ‘marine heavenʻ.  (Ulukau)

Trent’s company was publisher of TrenTrusTics, a financial journal much in demand by investors and others interested in Hawaiian industries and securities; was first treasurer of County of Oahu and twice re-elected, serving three terms from 1905-1910; president Honolulu Y. M. C. A., 1908-1915, member Territorial Board of Public Lands, 1910-1914. (Men of Hawaii)

Trent was a member of the Board of Regents, University of Hawaiʻi, for several years, as well as served as a trustee of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate and the Bishop Museum.

In 1928, while Trustee of the Kamehameha Schools (1917-1939,) a junior division was created for the Kamehameha School for Boys annual song contest; Trent donated the contest trophy.  The original school for boys contest cup, the George A Andrus cup, was designated as the trophy for the senior division winner and the Richard H Trent Cup for the junior division winner.

Trent was also owner of the only private zoo in the Territory. (Men of Hawaii)  “Mr. Trent’s zoo is practically a public institution, maintained at his personal, private expense for the public’s pleasure.” (PCA, 8/21/1916)  At one point, it appears the zoo was a little too ‘open.’

“Dogs frightened the two animals brought from Australia for Trent’s private zoo and they jumped against their cage with enough force to break through it … A young one, thrown from its mother’s pouch, was killed by the dogs, but the pair of old ones managed to get away and have not been seen since.”  (Star-Bulletin, August 21, 1916)

 “Richard H. Trent, Honolulu’s animal impresario, issues a call to all citizens of Oahu today to join in a mammoth, personally conducted wallaby hunt, the first of its kind ever held in the Hawaiian archipelago.”

“Two of the three small kangaroos which he obtained last week from Australia, at great trouble and expense, escaped from the Trent zoological gardens on Alewa Heights Saturday night and at latest reports last night were roaming at will in the Oahu forests.”

“Inhabitants are warned hereby that the animals positively are not dangerous; will not bite anything more meaty than grass, leaves or succulent forest shrubbery. The unfortunate owner offers a reward of twenty-five dollars for their capture and return alive.”

“Unless the animals are caught they may be come permanent denizens of the mountain districts and, like their distant cousins, the Australia rabbits, may propagate and produce eventually a breed of Hawaiian wallabies.”

“But meantime the public would be deprived of gazing upon them at close range and observing the peculiarities of the unusual, antipodean animals. … The wallabies are perfectly harmless, it is said, but they may prove exceedingly difficult to capture.” (PCA, 8/21/1916)

While the wallabies once roamed from Nuʻuanu to Hālawa, they are now known to live in only one valley, the ʻEwa side of Kalihi Valley, which has a series of sheer cliffs and narrow rocky ledges.  (earlham-edu)

The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DLNR-DOFAW) no longer keeps track of the population, since they believe the animals are nonthreatening.

Wallabies are designated as protected game mammals by DLNR (§13-123-12,) which means no hunting, killing or possessing, unless authorized.  (The same rule applies to wild cattle.) In 2002, a wallaby was captured in Foster Village; DLNR released it back into Kalihi Valley.

The last state survey of Kalihi wallabies was in the early-1990s; at the time, the estimated population was as high as 75-animals.

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Plantation Store System

“Stores have played an important role in Hawaii’s plantation communities. Prior to 1945, they provided plantation residents with their basic needs, served as social gathering places, catered to various ethnic preferences …”

“… in food, clothing, and medicine, and provided special services such as extended credit and free delivery, which eased the inconveniences of scant, once-a-month paydays and car-less plantation living.”

“[A]s one travels east along Hana Highway from the city of Kahului, two sugar mills can be seen among the cane fields which characterize central Maui. The first to come to view is Puunene Mill. Located two miles from Kahului, it is part of the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S). “

“Surrounding the mill area are the battered remains of a plantation camp that once housed many of the company’s employees. Next to be seen along the highway, if one looks hard enough among the cane fields, are traces of what was once the town of Spreckelsville, the site of three of HC&S’s twenty-six camps. In 1935, 7,600 employees and their families lived in the twenty-six camps that dotted the area.”

“Among the plantation camps stood four public schools, three Japanese-language schools, ten churches, one large hospital, twelve day nurseries, three theaters, and a gymnasium.  One of the world’s largest plantations at the time, Puunene Plantation consisted of 33,000 acres, 16,000 of which were cane land in 1935.”

“Two miles further along Hana Highway, on a hill, appears Paia Mill. … [P]rior to 1948 when the two companies merged, Paia Plantation was part of the Maui Agricultural Company (MA Company).”

“Less sprawling than neighboring Puunene Plantation, Paia Plantation consisted of six main camps housing approximately 6,000 people. Besides the main Paia Camp which consisted of smaller ‘subcamps’ near the mill, the other camps were at Kaheka, Hamakua Poke, Keahua, Pulehu, and Kailua.”

“Lower Paia, situated on non-plantation-owned lands, with stores, restaurants, bars, and barbershops, still exists today on Hana Highway one-half mile below Paia Mill. It had a population of a little over 1,000 in the 1930s and housed many of the stores and businesses upon which Paia Plantation residents depended.”

“The MA Company plantation store system, serving Paia Plantation, included Paia Store, one of the island’s largest stores, and six branch stores located in outlying camps. While these branch stores were small and provided a smaller volume and variety of goods, Paia Store sold a large variety of goods ranging from Japanese foods to women’s lingerie.”

“Paia Store was so large that it was divided into departments: grocery, men’s furnishings, drugs, dry goods, Japanese foods and dry goods, etc.”

“Paia Store was frequented by those living in the surrounding camps. The branch stores, located in the more remote areas, were ‘convenience’ stores serving only residents of those areas.”  “Prices at the plantation stores were generally lower than that of the independent stores.”

“Purchase by credit was generally the rule in the plantation stores prior to 1945. Customers were able to charge their purchases by their plantation identification numbers called bangō. Payment was not due until the monthly payday – the first of each month.”

“[W]hen customers had large families, they were not required to pay off their entire bill at one time. They would be able to maintain a credit balance and make smaller payments each payday. If a customer’s balance got too high, or payments to the store were lagging, the store would obtain the customer’s pay envelope from the plantation office.”

“The customer therefore had to get his pay from the store. After subtracting part of the balance owed the store, the customer would receive his pay. This system of ‘payroll deduction’ enabled the plantation store to avoid large, unpaid accounts. It was an advantage the plantation stores had over the independent stores.”

“The busiest time of the month for the stores was ‘new month’ time. Generally starting between the twentieth and twenty-sixth

of each month (exact dates varied with each store), a customer was allowed to charge goods from that date and was not required to pay for his purchase until the payday after next.

“Family-run Camp Stores … were operated by couples, mostly Japanese, and carried ‘last minute’ and ‘on the spot’ items – canned goods needed that day, soda, ice cream, and candy. … Since these stores were situated on plantation land, permission was needed from the plantation to open a store.”

“The children usually helped out in the store. The husband often would do the pickups and deliveries, leaving his wife and children to watch the store.” “Transactions were usually made in cash. Credit was occasionally given, but to only those the storekeeper knew well.”

Lower Paia Stores were “[l]ocated onlv one-half mile down the road from the Paia Mill and Paia Store, these stores, not located on plantation lands, provided Paia Plantation residents with alternatives to the plantation stores.”

“Many of the stores in Lower Paia were specialized. One store in Lower Paia, Paia Mercantile, rivaled the plantation store in size and variety of goods, but most of the others sold groceries, clothing, drugs, or fish.”

“Most of these stores depended heavily upon plantation residents for their business and some provided services similar to that of the plantation store, including order taking and delivery, credit, and new month. Because they were not as large as the plantation store, the extent of these services was limited.”

“The roads of Paia and Puunene camps were often busy with men in trucks who sold fresh fish, meat, vegetables, and canned goods.”

“Often equipped with a horn or a bell, these independent peddlers would follow a set schedule and route, so that plantation residents would know when to expect them. Because the plantation stores and the Kahului Japanese stores did not sell many fresh items, these peddlers served a valuable function.”

“Stores in Paia and Puunene underwent major changes because of war. Stores profited when thousands of military personnel were stationed around the area.”

However, “Some stores were adversely affected by the war. Two of the five stores comprising the Kahului ‘big 5’ – Kobayashi Shokai and Japanese Mercantile Company – closed down due to the enactment of the Alien Properties Custody Act. This law prohibited the continued operation of businesses under alien ownership.”

“Perhaps the major development which most affected the stores was the closing down of the plantation camps and the migration of the residents to Dream City.”

“This development, beginning in the early 1950s, led to a) the demolition of camp stores; b) the decrease in population of Lower Paia, causing many merchants to sell their businesses to young haole merchants; c) the decline and eventual closing of the plantation-run stores; and d) the rise of Kahului as a major population center with modern supermarkets and shopping centers.”

“The HC&S plantation stores were structured in a slightly different way. As the main retail outlets for the areas’ residents, the branch stores at Camp 5 (Puunene) and Camp 1 (Spreckelsville} were fairly large and carried a variety of goods.”

“The main HC&S store in Kahului was almost exclusively a wholesaler, supplying independent, non-plantation stores as well as the HC&S plantation store system .”

“In 1948, HC&S and MA Company merged, placing the plantation store system under the jurisdiction of a single company: A&B Commercial Company.” (Stores and Storekeepers of Paia & Puunene, Maui, UH Manoa, Ethnic Studies Program)

In 1980, the UH Manoa Ethnic Studies program conducted a number of oral histories from people who grew up and worked in the Paia-Pu‘unene area of Maui.  Those histories and the information concluded from them provide insight into the plantation store system.  All here is from that project report.

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Honolulu Fish Auction

“The auctioneer rings a brass bell at 5:30 am and the bidding begins.” (United Fishing Agency)

“One of the most colorful but least known spectacles offered along the waterfront is the daily fish auction, offered in several spots by independent auction houses who take a percentage for selling independent sampan catches.” (Star Bulletin, Dec 11, 1954)

“United Fishing Agency, auction sales only, was organized … by fishermen, wholesalers and retailers. Agency trucks pick up deep-sea tuna and marlin and shallow-water bottom fish at the docks.”

“The United Fishing Agency is one of the best things that has ever happened to Hawaii’s seafood industry. … The agency … revolutionised and changed for the better the way Hawaii’s seafood is marketed”. (Iverson)

Back then, “The man who makes things go, Shozo Tanijo has been buying and selling fresh fish for over 40 years. As auctioneer and assistant manager of the United Fishing Agency, his shrewd handling of early morning auctions means life and death to the fishing industry.”

“It isn’t so much a matter of waiting for bids as it is a question of coaxing them from canny buyers – wholesalers, retailers and peddlers.”  (Star Bulletin, Dec 11, 1954)  That was 70 years ago; not much seems to have changed.

When I was at DLNR, I had the opportunity to experience the fish auction.  A couple owners of several longline boats wanted me to have a firsthand experience. It was memorable.

“The United Fishing Agency started the Honolulu Fish Auction on August 5, 1952.” (Hawaii Seafood) “They brought together several small fishing companies founded by Japanese immigrants in the 1900s.”

“Modeled after the famous Tokyo auction [where fish were sold individually rather than by the boatload to wholesalers (Mossman)], the Honolulu Fish Auction was born … “

“The Hawaii longline fleet has since grown to over 140 vessels operating the most sustainable fishery in the world.  They still operate it today at the new facilities located dockside on Pier 38 [at Honolulu Harbor].” (United Fishing Agency)

“In other parts of the world, fishermen sell their fish to wholesalers who generally dictate prices. The United Fishing Agency came up with a better way that allows the independent fishermen to sell their catch at a fair price …”

“… and, in turn, enables auction buyers representing the wholesale, retail and restaurant sectors to get the freshest fish. Open competitive bidding rewards higher quality fish with higher prices.” (HawaiiSeafood)

“Wholesalers and retailers bid against each other at these auctions. Often street truck-peddlers will form a hui to buy one 150-200-pound fish which they split later.” (SB, Dec 11, 1954)

Today, “The United Fishing Agency is a privately-held company with Mr Akira Otani as President, Brooks Takenaka as Manager, and Frank Goto as General Manager Emeritus.” (Iversen)

“‘The commercial fishing industry is the largest food producer in the state,’ says Goto, who also serves as assistant vice president of United Fishing Agency, the entity that runs the auction and is celebrating its 70th year in business.”

“‘We’re really 80%-90% of the local production of food in the state, so if we’re talking about food security, we’re the most important industry. Fresh fish is not only a cultural staple here,’ he adds, ‘it’s also an economic necessity.’” (Mossman)

“Brooks Takenaka, the auction’s general manager, is fond of saying that Hawaii’s pelagic longline fishery is the world’s best managed, pointing out that 20 per cent of Hawaii’s tuna longliners carry federal observers and that 100 per cent of swordfish longliners carry observers. When their quotas are reached, they stop fishing.” (Iversen)

“The day starts at 1 am. That’s when unloading begins, 6 days a week. The fishing vessels are unloaded in order of arrival. Fish are weighed, tagged with the vessel name, displayed on pallets, and kept clean and cold.”

“Before being offered for sale, each fish is carefully inspected by the United Fishing Agency staff to ensure fish quality and safety. Buyers arrive before the auction begins to inspect the day’s landings. By tradition, the auctioneer rings a brass bell at 5:30 am and the bidding begins.”

“Hundreds of fish are displayed on pallets on the auction floor. The United Fishing Agency auctioneer moves down the rows of fish surrounded by buyers who openly bid against each other for value, the best prices and quality fish.”

“The majority of fish are sold individually. This competition continues until all the fish are sold. Up to 100,000 pounds of fish can be auctioned in a day. Buyers are invoiced for their purchases by United Fishing Agency and fishermen are paid that day for their fish.” (HawaiiSeafood)

Limited tours at the auction are available by Reservation Only, on selected Saturday mornings from 6:00am – 7:30am.  Cost is $35 for adults and $25 for children 8 – 12 years old.  As a place of business the Honolulu Fish Auction does not allow unescorted access into the facility.  NOTE: Tours are not generally scheduled mid December to mid January.

Honolulu Fish Auction Tour Registration Dates

“The tour begins with viewing the fishing vessels dockside and a discussion of how the fish are harvested and handled to preserve quality and safety.  The daily life on a fishing vessel is described.”

“The regulatory requirements of the fishery are then emphasized … The tour then traces the fish from the vessels into the fish auction facility.”

“On the auction floor, you will learn about how the fish are inspected to insure seafood safety and how a fish auction works. You have the opportunity to see the variety of fish landed and learn something about fish quality, seafood & health and seafood safety.  “ (HawaiiSeafood)

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